Bailiffs called on TNS owner Mike Harris in car tax case

Michael Harris, 56, of Buttington, Welshpool, was charged with driving an unlicensed vehicle on Shrewsbury Road in Oswestry on May 17, 2018. The tax on the car had been expired for 11 weeks.

He said he was “very angry” that court action was taken against him and that it was ‘distressing’ when bailiffs threatened to break into his home, magistrates heard.

Harris made a statutory declaration to Welshpool Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, April 23, to say that he did not know anything about the matter going to court until bailiffs enforced a fine.

The court then put the original charge to Harris. He initially said that he believed the tax was paid but later admitted the offence and received a fine.

The defendant told magistrates that he had “no correspondence” and “no notification of any court case”.

He said that a different correspondence address must have been used, or that it could have been sent to another property in his village, where his post is often sent to by mistake.

Harris told magistrates that since the tax system changed, you haven’t got anything in the windscreen to “jog your mind”.

Harris said that when the bailiffs came to his home he questioned whether they were “conmen or scammers”. He said they caused “distress”. “People were threatening to break into my home,” the court heard.

He said he was “very angry” that court action was taken against him.

When asked by the court to give a plea for the offence, Harris said: “I need to check to find out if there is a gap.”

The defendant was told he needed to submit a plea, and after a woman from the public gallery said “there was a gap” he admitted the offence. Harris was asked for his monthly income and if he was on benefits. He said he made around £90,000 a year from investments.

Magistrates ordered Harris to pay a total of £188.34.

Chair of the magistrates’ bench, Nick Powell, said the fine was “on the basis not so much on your salary but on fairness”.